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This is a rare and possibly unique portrait believed to be of Lord (Baron) Denning by his wife, Lady Joan Denning. This personal oil painting comes with a letter by Lady Joan Denning explaining why she painted this and another work. We are not aware of any other portraits of Lord Denning that capture him…
This is a rare and possibly unique portrait believed to be of Lord (Baron) Denning by his wife, Lady Joan Denning. This personal oil painting comes with a letter by Lady Joan Denning explaining why she painted this and another work. We are not aware of any other portraits of Lord Denning that capture him in his later years off duty and as a humble man as we see here.
Size
Condition
Very good.
Attribution
Comes with a personal letter by Lady Denning.
Lord Denning
Often described as the greatest English legal mind of the 20th Century. Baron Alfred Tom Denning, OM, PC, DL (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was a British barrister and judge. A graduate of both Mathematics and Law from Magdalen College, Oxford, he is remembered for his extraordinarily passionate judicial advocacy and for crafting
judgments that put social justice at the heart of jurisprudence.
Beginning his career as a civil barrister, Baron Denning quickly distinguished himself as a formidable advocate and was appointed to the High Court very early in his career, at the impressively young age of 45. Promotion to the Court of Appeal followed swiftly on from this post, and he was raised to the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords at the age of 58. Though he operated at the very apex of the judicial system, he is best remembered for the two
decades that he spent as Master of The Rolls between 1962 and 1982.
Aside from his work as a judge, Baron Denning presided over key moments in British history, such as the 1963 Report into the Profumo Affair. His robust advocacy for the rule of law has left a number of key maxims that are immortalised in the minds of English and Welsh undergraduate students, such as his restatement of the rule of law in the case Gouriet v Union of Post Office Workers. “Be ye ever so high, the law is higher than ye.”
His enduring legacy is perhaps best summed up by Lord Bingham, who described Lord Denning as “the best- known and best-loved judge of this, or perhaps any, generation cherished by his countless friends on the Bench, at the Bar and among the wider public throughout the Commonwealth.” To this day, aspiring barristers continue to benefit from Baron Denning’s legacy through tw initiatives of his Inn of Court. The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn provides promising bar students with the Lord Denning Scholarship, a package of significant financial assistance, to assist them in becoming leading advocates. The Inn also convenes a ‘Denning Society’ of its scholars to provide students and distinguished senior barristers with an opportunity to discuss the most pressing contemporary legal issues. (reference and acknowledgement BIICL).